Like those lilting bossa nova tunes that seem to make time stand still with endless motion, the beat keeps going for Sergio Mendes.

Mendes performs a two-night gig at Blue Note Hawaii starting Friday, coming here fresh off a visit to Japan to finish off an extended touring schedule that has seen him performing in Australia, the Netherlands and everywhere in between since February.

Touring is just part of his routine.

“I’m doing a new album that’s coming out next April, and I’m also doing a documentary about my life,” he said, calling from Japan. “We went to Brazil. We filmed the whole journey coming from Rio to Los Angeles, and interviewed a lot of people in Brazil.”

The album is a departure from the past in that all of the tunes will be original and composed by Mendes himself. He has often characterized himself as an interpreter of others’ material, rather than a creator of his own.

“I’ve written songs in the past, but I’ve always been kind of lazy about it — as a good Brazilian,” he said with a laugh. “And now, for this album I decided I wanted to write some fresh new songs, and it’s been a great experience. When you write a song, you more or less have an idea of the structure of the song, and then comes the intro and so forth. I’m producing it as well, so being a writer and producer, it’s a challenge, but it’s very, very good.”

MENDES AND his band will be be playing familiar hits here for his Honolulu concert, including classic interpretations of “Going Out of My Head,” “Day Tripper” and his biggest hit, “Mas Que Nada,” from his landmark album “Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66.”

That’s his wife, Gracinha Leporace, doing the singing as lead vocalist.

Mendes said he hasn’t worked up his new tunes for performance yet. But that’s not a worry, because he has innumerable classics of jazz-inflected pop and bossa nova to choose from.

He was one of the pioneers of the bossa nova style that swept the world in the 1960s. In 1962, he performed with his mentor, Antonio Carlos Jobim, American sax virtuoso Stan Getz and others in a legendary bossa nova festival in Carnegie Hall. The concert went over so well that it actually helped popularize bossa nova back in Brazil.

A year later, Mendes was in Japan in a similar performance, and he’s been a favorite there ever since.

“In those days, the audience was very polite and quiet, but now we’ve got them dancing with us,” Mendes said with a laugh.

He’s seen many musical transformations over the course of his career.

MENDES GREW up near Rio de Janeiro and began his music studies intending to become a classical pianist. In his early teens, however, Mendes heard a recording of Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out” and was inspired to learn jazz.

It wasn’t easy, because sheet music wasn’t available, but soon enough Mendes was forming small jazz ensembles, blending in the sounds of his own country to make for an intoxicating mix.

“Mostly I learned by ear, because we were listening to records, but I loved the idea of improvisation, of freedom, and that attracted me very much,” said Mendes. Later, he would study with “the Gershwin of Brazil,” Jobim.

Mendes’ versatility brought opportunities to work with some of the biggest names in American jazz, recording with Cannonball Adderley early in his career and going on to work with stars like Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Mann.

He’s recorded more than 50 albums, won a Grammy Award for world music with his 1993 album, “Brasileiro,” and two Latin Grammy Awards.

His formula for success? An ear for some of the best melodies ever written, along with an unerring sense of the various rhythms in Brazilian music and how to apply them.

It’s a combination that works even when listeners can’t understand the words, as in “Mas Que Nada,” a tune by countryman Jorge Ben Jor that Mendes described as a “chant” about dancing. Mendes said Brazilian Portuguese adds an enchanting touch to such sungs.

“Brazilian Portuguese is very musical, and very rhythmical as well, so the language leads to a kind of poetry,” Mendes said. “It’s a great-sounding language for music.”

More recently, recognition for his talent was rekindled when he worked with the Black Eyed Peas in a remake of “Mas Que Nada,” a project that came about after the Peas’ Will.i.am told him he had all of Mendes’ recordings.

“I didn’t know much about Will, but meeting him, going to the studio was such a great experience,” he said. “Everything was very organic, it was not like, brainy. It was very spontaneous. … Most of those collaborations, they happen like that. There’s no formula. You get into the studio and you let magic happen.”